Adhesive bandage material



April 1952 c. A. HANINGTON 2,592,801

ADHESIVE; BANDAGE MATERIAL Filed Oct. 20, 1949 Patented Apr. 15, 1952UNITE SITE AT' 'ENT OFFICE ADHESEVE BANDAGE MATERIAL Charles A.Harrington, Freepcr-t, N. Y. v Application October to, 1949,1Ser'idl No.Itasca 1 1 (Hahn. (CL 128- 156) This invention relates to bandagematerial and in particular to the manufacture of the same to render itadhesive.

There are self adherent bandages on the market which adhere tothemselves as their layers overlap one another in wrapping the bandage,but in all the various forms, the entire fabric of the gauze is madeadhesive, either by impregnating the complete fabric by immersion, andthen subsequently squeezing out the surplus adhesive, or by applying theadhesive between rollers, or other methods of application. Howeverprocessed, when the entire fabric is made adhesive, the adhesive beingwater repellent, the

gauze loses most of its absorbing qualities, so desirable in a, bandage.

Also, when the entire fabric is made adhesive, all the fibres and apreponderance of the interstices between the threads are filled with theadhesive material, thus reducing the desirable ventilating qualities ofthe gauze considerably. When the entire fabric is impregnated the adhesive partially locks the threads together, reducing the freeflexibility of the gauze and resulting in a stiff uncomfortable bandage.My invention contemplates a new type of self adherent bandage which isfree of the foregoing drawbacks, inherent in previous self adherentbandages.

The positioning of the innumerable small areas of impregnation arepredetermined and are evenly placed throughout the entire fabric, thusmain taining the same degree of adhesion, ventilation and flexibilitythroughout the entire fabric, These small areas are also clean cut, andfill up the pores of the fabric within their respective areas only,leaving the main body of the fabric in its original form, free toabsorb, ventilate and flex.

I prefer to use latex for the adhesive although other adhesive mediumsmay be used, and as latex will not readily adhere to the plain gauze insubsequent wrappings of a bandage (which would be the case if the smalladhesive areas were applied to only one side of the gauze), it isimperative that the small adhesive areas offer adhesion on both sides ofthe gauze, so they will come in contact with the small adhesive areas onthe preceding wrappings. To effect this result the adhesive is forcedinto the mesh or the fabric at the predetermined areas, filling up thepores of the fabric within their respective areas and offering anadhesive surface to both sides of the fabric at the area ofimpregnation. In using my bandage, the innumerable small adhesive areason 2 the bottom of subsequent wrappings come in con tact .at'myriads ofplaces with the small'adhes'ive areas on the top of preceding wrappings,adhering thereto, and so holding the bandage in place Without otherbinding means, at the same time providing almost as muchabsorptionventi-lation and flexibility as would the plaingauze bandage.The important objects of 'my'inventionare to provide a bandage, thepores of the material of which are filled with the adhesive material atinnumerable small areas of impregnation only, to provide small adhesivesurfaces on both sides of the fabric at these areas which constituteapproximately twenty-five percent of the area of the material; toprovide an untreated area of substantially seventy-five percent of thearea of the material so that being in its natural original state it willfreely absorb moisture and will aiford the same ventilation andflexibility as plain gauze; and to so arrange the innumerable smallareas in such predetermined spatial relation that qualities of equaladhesion, absorption, ventila tion and flexibility are preserved.

With these and other objects in view, the invention comprises certainconstruction hereinafter described and then particularly pointed. out inthe claim and a preferred embodiment of my invention is illustrated inthe accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a pictorial representation of a. finger to which a strip ofbandage constructed in accordance with my invention, is applied,

Figure 2 is a greatly enlarged face view of a fragment of bandagematerial showing the relative areas of adhesive and absorbent material,

Figure 3 is a cross sectional view of a piece of gauze or bandage fabricas illustrated in Figure 2 showing the spaced adhesive areas, and

Figure 4 is a greatly enlarged section taken through the gauze fabric atone of the adhesive areas to show how the adhesive material fills theinterstices of the fabric.

Referring to the drawing in detail [0 indicates bandage fabriccomprising the warp and Woof threads H and [2 respectively Woven in sucha manner as to leave therebetween'interstices l3 which render thebandage material porous so that the part covered thereby can beventilated. Small areas of adhesive M are applied to the bandagematerial at predetermined evenly spaced points from each other and insuch spatial relation that the areas of the adhesive and the areas ofthe plain fabric are in the relation of approximately one quarter andthree quarters respectively.

As seen in Figures 3 and 4 the adhesive, which is preferably latex,forms a solid area extending through the interlacings of the threads andlaterally and longitudinally therebetween so that spaced adhesion areasare presented at both sides of the fabric so that when the latter iswound about a part to be bandaged there wili be cohesion between thelayers of bandage without the air blocking objection that is found inbandages in which the threads of the material are impregnated with anadhesive substance throughout their length.

The use of the spaced adhesive areas provide means whereby successivelayers of a wrapped bandage cohere and do not require other means forsecuring the bandage in place. Further, the percentage of area ofunimpregnated material provides for the retention of the major absorbingquality of the bandage fabric. In adhesive bandages wherein the threadsare coated with an adhesive substance, the desirable quality ofabsorption is lost and the increased diameter of the threads by theapplication thereto of the adhesive material restricts the area of theinterstices and thus decreases materially the porosity of the bandage.By maintaining a relative proportion of substantially one to threebetween the areas of adhesion and absorption a bandage of desirableproperties is provided and one which can be quickly applied andadjusted, can be wrapped by the individual using it and will remain in asecurely wrapped or applied position without use of other fasteningmeans.

My invention is not to be restricted to the 4 precise detaiis ofconstruction shown since various changes and modifications may be madetherein without departing from the scope of the invention or sacrificingthe advantages to be derived from its use.

What I claim is:

An adhesive bandage comprising warp and woof threads arranged in openweave to present interstices providing a porous absorbent material. anadhesive substance in the form of dots completely embedding the warp andwoof threads applied at spaced points throughout the area of both sidesof the material and arranged to occupy substantially one quarter of thearea of the material and presenting at opposite faces of said materialareas of adhesion whereby when the material is wrapped as a bandage thelayers thereof will be held in cohesive relation and substantially threequarters of the area of the material will serve as an absorbentventilating medium.

CHARLES A. HANINGTON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 7 2,177,425 Barker Oct. 24, 19392,204,859 Hyatt et al June 18, 1940 2,310,082 Holbrooke Feb. 2, 19432,349,709 Evans May 23, 1944 23106287 Grimshaw Aug. 20, 1946

